


Rugs, Hugs, and Flashbacks

by BubbleDramatically



Category: High Hopes Low Rolls (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Forgive Me, I DIDNT MEAN FOR IT TO TURN THIS WAY, I promise, Memories, Oneshot, Whump, talking about feelings, this wasn't mEANT TO BE ANGST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23729764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubbleDramatically/pseuds/BubbleDramatically
Summary: When Gwing Veloce stumbles upon Paddock Whitlaw curled up and teary eyed on a very furry rug in front of a fire, they begin to talk and she learns a little more about their autumnal rogue and makes a promise she intends on keeping.
Relationships: Gwing Veloce/Rook Lunera (mentioned), Paddock "Paddy" Whitlaw & Gwing Veloce
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	Rugs, Hugs, and Flashbacks

**Author's Note:**

> Am I good at writing? i wISH! Anyway, I have been reading the absolute hell out of the fics in the HHLR tag because it has been blessed with a bunch of fics and I just, i've been bathing in the fanfic. aLTHOUGH ALL OF THEM HAVE BEEN ANGST AND I WAS LIKE "i'll write fluff!" BUT IT DIDNT TURN OUT THAT WAY

The moonlight shined in through the windows, the cool glow illuminating the bedroom. All was quiet and calm as the snow fell onto the grounds outside, till a certain blue-haired ranger was awoken.

Gwing opened her eyes slowly, blinking the sleep from her eyes and glancing around. At her side was a familiar brunette, the wizard was curled up into the blankets with his pseudodragon familiar laying across his pillow. The heavy sleeper was knocked out like a light, soft snores leaving him with each breath. Gwing tried to fall back asleep, but the nagging feeling in her gut kept her from finding a comfortable position to lay. Finally giving up, she sat up straight in the bed, rolling her shoulders and stretching her arms.

At the foot of the bed was her trusty animal companion Nala, the panther's body was stretched across the bottom of the bed, her paws stretched high above her head as if she were a tiny cat. The animal seemed to sense Gwing sitting up, as her furry head lifted and her eyes opened to stare at her owner. Whispering small hushes to the panther, Gwing scratched behind Nalas ears and that calmed her down enough for Gwing to slip out without the feline bounding after her like an overly zealous canine when their owner tries to walk three feet from them.

Slipping out of the room she began to walk down the hall of the manor. They had been working their way back to Kadar when they stopped had to stop at a city to retrieve some needed items for Rosa Zahradny, the mayor of Kadar, when the mayor of the city had offered them a place to stay for the night. He said he'd known Rosa for a long time and wouldn't want her friends traveling through the snowy night or staying in an uncomfortable and unsafe inn when he had more than enough rooms for them and after a quick discussion they decided to stay.

Quietly shuffling down the hall she stopped when she saw light shining through an ever so slightly open door. Approaching it cautiously she peered inside and was surprised to find the groups autumnal rogue curled up on a rogue in front of a crackling fire. 

"Paddy?" She croaked out, her voice hoarse from having just woken up. The rogue in question jumped up at the sound of her voice, his head spinning around quickly and bright green eyes wide. Although what caught her attention was the redness of his eyes, the tears that lined his lower lid and the wet tracks down his cheeks. Stepping inside the lounge she quietly closed the large door behind her and stepped closer to the rogue till she sat at his side.

"Paddy, what's wrong?" She asked softly, her eyes full of warmth, one cozier than the fire they sat before. It seemed that small question only seemed to make the boy cry harder, his shoulders shook silently as more tears rolled down his cheeks. His hands dug into the carpet and he gripped the long fur tightly between his fingers. The woman wrapped her arms around the boy and brought him in close to her for a hug. The boy leaned into her shoulder and cried harder, clinging onto her as a scared child would do with their mother.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Gwing combing her fingers through the wood elf's hair soothingly while the boy cried into the crook of her neck.

After awhile Paddy pulled away, tears no longer rolling down his cheeks.

"I'm okay, I'm... I'm alright now..." He whispered, bringing his hand up to wipe the tears from his face. It looked as if his makeup had been quickly removed, hints of the black eye shadow still lingering on the edges of his eyes and the edges of his face. Gwing kept an arm on the boy, her thumb rubbing soothing circles on his shoulder as he dried himself of his tears. She might give this party a lot of shit for being wacky dorks with no sense of consequences, but they were still her only family left and by the Gods she'd protect them with her life.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" She questioned quietly. Paddy stared off for a minute before nodding his head, a small hum leaving him as he turned his attention back to the fireplace. They continued to sit in silence before Paddy sucked in a deep breath and began to speak.

"When I was younger I had three other siblings, all of which older than I am. There was Ronan, the eldest, and then right after he was Connor and Cara, they were twins and about five years older than me if my memory serves me right... One day, I guess Connor and Cara were looking around in the attic when they stumbled upon a very fluffy fur rug and well..."

_A younger Paddy walked down the hall of his family home, stopping just outside of his sibling's room and knocking on it._

_"Cara, Connor, you in there?" He called, shifting his weight onto one leg._

_"Doors open!" Two voices called from inside. Smiling, he opened the door and looked down at the envelope in his hands. "So I guess we have to attend a- What in God's name are you two doing?" His eyes went wide as he stared at the two. The older elves were laying strewn across a rug, Cara was awkwardly laying on her side, her shoulder squashed under her and her face snuggled into her gray poncho, long brown hair out of its normal messy bun and sprawled around in every direction. Connor was on his back, spread out like a starfish._

_"We're napping," Connor said, lifting his head to stare at his brother. Paddy went to open his mouth and say some witty remark but stopped himself before he even could._

_"Where in the blazes did you get that rug? And why are you laying on it?" He said, realizing his siblings never actually had a rug in their room._

_"Well, we were in the attic looking for some old books when we found it wrapped up-" Cara began before her brother chipped in._

_"It fell on us."_

_Sending him a glare, Cara continued._

_"Yes, but as I was saying, we were gonna put it back but it was just so dang soft! We hugged it for a while before we decid_ _ed to bring it down, come feel it!" She smiled, motioning for her brother to come closer. Paddy stared for a second longer then made his way towards his siblings._

_Getting on his knees he ran his fingers through the fur, it was soft and there wasn't a knot in any of it. "Holy hell, that's soft." He mumbled under his breath, a little astounded at the high quality of the rug._

_"We chilled on it till we laid down and just decided to hang down here, wanna join?" Connor offered, trying to fix his messier than normal hair. With a nod in return, it was a mere minutes before the twins and their brother was comfortably settled. Paddy laid with his head atop Connors's stomach, the two of them making a T symbol. Connor had his arm thrown over his eyes and Cara was curled up into Paddy's side._ _They laid there, drifting in and out of sleep for an hour and a half, the silence easing them and the soft rug cradling them._

 _A knock at the door caused them all to blink away any tiredness, Cara rubbed her eyes while Connor just resorted to loud groans of annoyance to voice his opinion on the knocker. T_ _he three of them shifted around as there was another knock._

_"Who is it?" Paddy mumbled, ignoring the bickering of his siblings. ("Cara you ass those are my ribs get your elbow off!" "They were in my way!" "THEY'RE MY RIBS WOMAN!")_

_The door opened and the eldest brother stepped in, his mouth opened to speak but he just looked taken aback at his siblings._

_"Why are you all on the floor?"_

_"It's a party, come join." Connor invited, motioning to a large amount of room on the rug. Ronan paused and walked closer to them, bending down slightly to run his fingers across the rug._

_"Oh, I remember this, it used to sit in the lounge when I was young before- yOU ASSES!" Ronan yelped as his siblings pulled him forward and onto the rug with them._

_Their chorus of giggles and loud laughs rang through the once silent room as their brother struggled to break free of his siblings iron grip, he might've succeeded if it weren't for the fact Cara had a grip of pure iron and her hand was tightly wrapped around his wrist, so there was no getting free of that._

_"Guys, we have dinner to attend to, we were waiting for you all for ten minutes!" Ronan hissed, although there was no real threat behind it. With all of his younger siblings wrapped around him, or in Connor's case strewn across him since the boy had thrown himself across Ronan's stomach like a dramatic woman in the higher circles._

_"They can wait, we'll be fineeeee~" Cara giggled, dragging out her last word as she shucked off her poncho with a mumble of "It's hot in here.."_

_Ronan paused for just a minute longer before relaxing into his sibling's dog-pile._

_"Maybe a few minutes won't hurt.."_

Fresh tears rolled down Paddy's cheeks as he told the story, a bitter laugh left his lips as he turned to the blue-haired woman.

"After another ten minutes our dad came to check on us, said he was worried why it took us so long. In the end he just threw Ronan over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and told us to hurry to dinner before it got cold." He said between sharp breaths, ending it with a strangled out sob. "When we walked in our mother looked stunned, how could you blame her? Her eldest is being carried in by his dad, her other sons look like they just stuck their head out a window on a windy day, and Cara, oh hell, her hair was a straight-up mess! It was all curly and stuck out in certain places. Looked like a straight-up rats nest.." He finished with a wet laugh.

Scooting closer to Paddy, she wrapped her arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer to her.

"I just, I had a nightmare and I went to sit in here but then found this rug and it reminded me of that memory and I just... I miss them, I miss them so much Gwing... Our dad... Our dad died shortly after, maybe a two or three months after? Mom, she was so heartbroken.. Ronan stepped up but even he was so confused and now... Now they're gone, Gwing they're all gone...!" He cried harder, loud wails and sobs leaving him and each one broke Gwing's heart even more.

"I know how you feel, Paddock, not down to a T and I never will understand your pain down to a t, but know you have everyone here for you. We're your family, we're your _friends,_ and by God I promise we'll find out what happened to them, I swear." The promise Gwing made wasn't a false one by any means, they had found solved some shocking mysteries in the past and this was one that not only meant a lot to Paddy but now Gwing.

Paddy, who had thought to have run dry of tears, was met with fresh ones rolling down his cheeks at Gwing's words. Practically jumping the ranger, he whispered multiple thank you's to her before slipping into silence. Gwing held him in her arms till he grew heavy and limp, falling asleep. With some awkward and slow movements she was able to carefully pick the elf up into her arms and place him on the couch, wrapping him in a warm and thick blanket placed nearby.

Finding it hard to stay conscious herself she opted for just sleeping in the lounge with Paddy, so if he woke up again he wouldn't be alone. That and she didn't think she could find her way back to her room with how exhausted she was. Curling up in a large chair she relaxed and soon found herself slipping out of consciousness and welcoming sleep with open arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so last night I couldn't get comfortable in bed and I guess my pillow fell off my bed so i just wrapped myself in my blankets and rolled off the bed, onto my rug, and slept. My rug is a very soft furry rug and honestly that was probably the best sleep I've had in quite awhile, sadly. In the end it just inspired me to write this and I don't regret it. Instead of going for Paddark, Gwook, those ships, I just kinda used friendship and family. I plan on writing some stuff about the party in platonic friend situations (Hashaan and Nagar, Brio and Nagar because their energy reminds me of Yzma and Kronk and i can't NOT, Gimgar and Nagar, etc) and even more whitlaw stuff because I don't get enough of those babies. Hope you enjoyed!


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